the Language of Weaving

exuberant trimmings

I am sure many of you have been following Alison’s progress towards this fabulous Tudor outfit she made for a demonstration. Well, I was shamed by the lovely cord she made for her petticoat into crossing something off my to-do list: replacing the drawstrings which provide the ruching at the ankles of my Convergence trousers. I noted at the time that the ties I had were flimsy — well, they were even flimsier than I thought and completely disintegrated when I washed the trousers. So on Sunday afternoon I finally set myself up with two sets of five strands in the Convergence yarn and fingerlooped my way to these new ties.

I cut the yarn so that each length was symmetrical and I could match the colours when I folded them into loops. However, the variation over the skein means that there is a bit of movement in the transition from one colour to the next just as there is in the cloth. Close up the structure looks like this:

If you peer closely at the rust coloured section in the top left of the photo you may be able to tell that the cross-section of the cord is actually square rather than round. Apparently square cords were ideal for clothes (especially corsets!) because you can pull them up tight and they don’t slip. Somewhat oddly they are also easier to undo again, particularly when wet: if you have ever tried to loosen a wet guy rope — or struggled out of a soaked corset? Please spare us the details — then you’ll appreciate this feature. I hope it also means that these ties will turn out to be washable.